…and back to the farm. Christmas and New Year festivities done and dusted: now it’s time to try and remember what I was doing before I left for Europe in November. I’ve caught up with the accounts, paid the bills, sent out most of the copies of the book ordered while I was away, and begun to get the lawns back to some semblance of presentability. The rest of the farm is a different matter however. The truffière is not too bad: nice brulées appearing and the grass not too shaggy, but the vineyard’s looking in need of a trim. The olives appear to have managed a reasonable fruit set while I was away, but it’s too early to speculate about what the crop might be — and if it’ll be more than the birds can eat. Now I have to confront irrigation issues (though it is raining as I write), get the mowing under control and do some weed-eating round the bianchetto and Burgundy truffières. Time to start selling books, too.